Learn the Bangla alphabet
Bangla is written along a horizontal line called the মাত্রা (matra) — letters hang from it rather than sitting on it. Every consonant carries a built-in vowel sound, which is why ক is read ko and not k. Marks can change that vowel or drop it, and at the end of a word it often falls silent on its own.
Sixty characters cover the whole system. Start with any of them below, or read how the script works first.
স্বরবর্ণ · Vowels
The eleven independent vowel letters, and the attached forms they take when a vowel follows a consonant.
ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ · Consonants
Thirty-two consonants, grouped by where the tongue sits and whether the sound carries a puff of air.
চিহ্ন · Marks
Seven diacritics and modified letters that change a sound without standing alone as a syllable.
সংখ্যা · Numerals
The ten Bangla numerals, together with the Bangla number words that name each one.
Guides
- How the Bangla alphabet worksThe shape of the writing system, before any individual letter.
- Vowel signs: the attached formsThe ten kar forms, and the one vowel that does not have one.
- Compound letters: two consonants, one shapeযুক্তাক্ষর — two letters written as one, and how to take the shape apart.
- Aspirated and unaspirated consonantsTen pairs that differ only by a puff of air.
- শ, ষ and স: the three s-lettersThree letters, very nearly one sound.
- Retroflex and dental consonantsWhere the tongue sits, and why it changes the letter.
- Bangla numbersTen digits and the words that name them.